China’s hypersonic missile technology, other military advances shift ‘global geostrategic power’, says top Pentagon official
- China’s progress in hypersonic missiles, artificial intelligence and robotics is the biggest advance since World War II technology, says Milley
- If the US does not make a ‘fundamental change to ourselves in the coming 10 to 15 to 20 years, then we’re going to be on the wrong side of a conflict,’ he adds
China’s advances in hypersonic missile technology represents a “fundamental change” in the military balance of power that compels the US to pull off a similar leap in technological preparedness, a top Pentagon official said on Wednesday.
“We’re witnessing one of the largest shifts in global geostrategic power that the world has witnessed”, said Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, referring to the totality of China’s advances in nuclear capabilities, air and naval forces and its reported recent tests of hypersonic missiles. Milley was speaking at the Aspen Security Forum in Washington.
Milley added that the step change in military technology highlighted by China’s hypersonic missile prowess, artificial intelligence and robotics is the biggest since air power, mechanisation and radar were the decisive technologies that were used throughout World War II.
“If we, the United States military, don’t do a fundamental change to ourselves in the coming 10 to 15 to 20 years, then we’re going to be on the wrong side of a conflict,” he said.
The four-star general clarified comments about China’s recent hypersonic tests being “very close” to a Sputnik moment, which refers to the 1957 launching by the Soviet Union of the world’s first space satellite. China and the US have been testing hypersonic missile technologies for several years, making the comparison inaccurate, he said.
“With China, we’re going to need a full panoply of conventional forces – air, land and sea – but also space and cyber,” he said, adding that the latter two concern him the most.
Milley also dodged questions about the US government’s strategy of “strategic ambiguity” with respect to Taiwan, saying only that Washington will abide by the three joint communiqués signed by Beijing and Washington in the 1970s and early 1980s and the Taiwan Relations Act.
The former formalised Washington’s diplomatic recognition of Beijing and allowed cultural, commercial and other unofficial relations between America and Taiwan, while the latter authorises US weapons sales to Taipei.
Asked when he thought Beijing’s military might “make a move on Taiwan”, Milley said such a scenario is not likely within the next two years.
“I don’t think that [such an attack] is likely in the near future, being defined as 6, 12, maybe 24 months, that kind of window,” he said. “Having said that, though, the Chinese are clearly and unambiguously building the capability to provide those options to the national leadership if they so choose, at some point in the future.
“The US government’s policy is that whatever issues Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China have, they resolve them peacefully, in accordance with the will of the people of the island of Taiwan, and the people of China,” he added. “Were just interested in a peaceful outcome.”